Qualcomm's new mobile platform brings 4G to feature phones

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced today a new line of chips for entry-level phones. The SoC (system-on-a-chip) line is called the Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform, and will bring 4G LTE capability and other smart functionalities to feature phones.

The SoC uses a dual-core 1.1GHz CPU plus a Qualcomm Adreno GPU, but, being a feature phone processor, it caps display support at 480p and camera support at a paltry 3 megapixels. Qualcomm will support Linux-based operating systems on the platform, which presumably include but will not be limited to Android. The chip promises 45 days of standby time, 20 hours of talk time, and 86 hours of music playback.

Among the other features are 4 LTE, which means a 150Mbps theoretical download speed and 50Mbps upload speed; Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over Wi-Fi; dual-SIM support. 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 support handle basic local wireless connectivity.

"Qualcomm Technologies is committed to the migration of users and networks from 2G, 2.5G, and 3G to 4G," said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Feature phones are a lifeline in many emerging countries and the Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform allows us to bring 4G connectivity and services to the masses with devices at price points never seen before."